Kota Kinabalu

I went for this holiday rather blindly because I didn't really know what I was going to do there. It turned out that we were visiting one of my grandfather's brothers and his family.

My granduncle works as a manager of a factory selling gases - argon, oxygen, acetylene and nitrogen. The picture below shows the gases kept in large cylinders. The gases are compressed and kept under pressures as high as 2000 pounds. My granduncle said once someone didn't open a jar properly and the gas knocked out 2 teeth. It's not so much of the gases being deadly, but more of the intense pressure at which they're kept under. But of couse, if something catches fire there.. I can't imagine. I learnt quite a bit of practical chemistry during the visit.


My granduncle took us to visit another granduncle who was also living in Sabah. The next picture shows a row of shophouses. My other granduncle owns the one with the yellow shades. The lower floor is his coffeeshop. My granduncle and his family live on the second floor. His family cooked lunch for us and the food was really good. Never judge a coffeeshop by its looks.

We ate durians at my other granduncle's coffeeshop. My grandfather, his brother and dad went to buy durians from a market nearby.

I saw orange durian flesh for the first time in my life. I was told there are red ones too. The best thing is, they're organic, so the colours are natural. Amazing right?

My granduncle keeps a pet turtle at his house. It's an endangered type. Over at Sabah, the people can keep anything they want. If you look at the picture closely, this picture was taken before I found out, to my horror, that the turtle was suddenly peeing. Now that I think about it, I feel bad for scaring the poor turtle.

My granduncle also took to visit a crocodile farm. The entrance had a notice which read "Visitors are to enter at their entire risk". It got us a bit worried at first but the Chan adventurers braved the crocodiles and emerged from the exit unscathed.

I don't have any pictures for this, but the the seafood there is very, very, very good. I ate fresh fish, prawns, crabs and lobsters almost every meal (I didn't touch any of the rubbery food like eels and squids). Ahh. Kota Kinabalu is a paradise for seafood lovers (definitely not Jean who only likes fish).

I learnt a lot about life in Kota Kinabalu during this trip. There are many illegal Filipino immigrants there and they mainly occupy an island nearby. The police don't dare to chase them out because they own M16s and other weapons. Terrorist groups look on them as potential recruits. I also got to taste fruit and vegetables which I never knew existed.

I'm too used to city life. I nearly couldn't stand the slow pace of living I saw. I still wonder how people there can just sit by the road and watch the day pass by.